I often call upon my Dartmouth Institute training to analyze data critically. This is especially important now, as there is much data published on COVID-19, yet much less that is as clinically relevant."
ADAM SCHWARTZ MD, MS'02
As chair of the largest emergency department (ED) in San Diego, CA, Adam Schwartz MD, MS’02 is focused on using evidence-based methods to drive timely response plans to COVID-19. In fact, due in part to his studies while at The Dartmouth Institute, he became board-certified in clinical informatics to specialize in information management and analysis in his work.
Prior to COVID-19, Schwartz’s ED studied every timestamp, intervention, and movement that happens with patients. Now they are integrating relevant clinical data for COVID-19 into their regular informatics to account for how the illness has altered the cohort of patients seeking emergency care, and the different interventions they need as a result. Pulling from his Dartmouth Institute training, he created a latitude/longitude map to study the zip codes where people are likely to be tested and potentially test positive to help the department plan ahead.
Schwartz is also working with a group of physicians, ethicists, and other healthcare personnel on a city-wide initiative to plan for crisis triage in worst case scenarios should ventilators or other respiratory equipment become drastically limited. “We hope this plan will never be enacted,” he says, but it has led to the development of useful tools to monitor COVID response plans, including a real time dashboard to keep track of ventilator usage and ICU bed capacity, among other key data points.
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My training in health communications at The Dartmouth Institute really helped me become an asset to the COVID-19 Task Force team for the Florida West Coast Baptist Association."
CANDISS DUCKSWORTH-DURAND MPH'20
Candiss Ducksworth-Durand MPH'20 was appointed by her local church community to join the COVID-19 Task Force for the Florida West Coast Baptist Association. The association covers multiple churches throughout six counties in the state. The task force meets weekly via teleconference to prepare safety recommendations and cleaning/disinfecting protocols for reconvening in-person worship services. In addition to conducting research to help draft their recommendations and protocols, her main responsibility is to create the material that will be sent to the churches and their leaders to help guide their congregations. She attributes her ability to communicate clearly with different stakeholders to her time at Dartmouth and the work that was done in her health policy course.
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I live and breathe public health every day and I get to engage in research that is meaningful and impactful, [especially in the COVID-19 era] thanks to the formative experience that I had in the MPH program."
ANNIE NGUYEN PHD, MPH'07
An assistant professor at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Annie Nguyen PhD, MPH'07 co-authored a commentary about how COVID-19 has accentuated long-standing vulnerabilities in the school health system and among older adults. In the paper, she and her co-author address the "divide between evidence-based recommendations of experts and system responses that leave a sizeable number of Americans vulnerable to the worst aspects of COVID-19."
Nguyen is also currently conducting a needs assessment survey on how COVID-19 and the mitigation efforts, including physical distancing, and safer-at-home mandates, have impacted daily needs, mental health, and social isolation among older adults living with HIV.
"Getting my MPH at Dartmouth was really the first step of my public health journey," Nguyen says. "I credit the excellent education that I received for deepening my love of science and inspiring a love for research, which ultimately pushed me to pursue my PhD."
TACKLING THE CHALLENGES OF COVID-19
During this unprecedented crisis, Dartmouth Institute students and alumni are impassioned more than ever to improve the health of their communities.